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Not only that, but we must also realize that the figure of speech, as used in the Hebrew lan-
guage, always had the SAME NUMBER of days and nights. Moses fasted forty days and forty
nights (Exodus 24:18). Jonah was in the fish three days and three nights (Jonah 1:17). Job's so-
called friends sat with him seven days and seven nights (Job 2:13). It is evident that no Jew of Je-
sus' day would have spoken of "seven days and SIX nights," or "three days and TWO nights" --
even if this was the period of time he was describing. The COLLOQUIALISM always spoke of an
EQUAL NUMBER OF DAYS AND NIGHTS and, if a Jew wished to speak of a period of three
days which covered only two nights, he would have to speak of three days and three nights. A good
example of this found in the book of Esther, where the queen said that no one was to eat or drink
for three days, night or day (Esther 4:16), but on the third day, when only two nights had passed,
she ended the fast by going into the king's chamber.

Here are a few more examples from the Bible and from Rabbinic sources to demonstrate
the inclusive reckoning usage: In I Samuel 30:12 we find the story of an abandoned Egyptian ser-
vant who "had not eaten bread or drunk water for three days and three nights." The idiomatic usage
of this expression is clearly shown by the following verse where the Egyptian servant complains
that his master left him behind "three days ago" (verse 13). Obviously, if the "three days and three
nights" were meant to be taken literally, then the hapless servant should have said that he had been
left behind FOUR DAYS before!

Explicit examples for inclusive day reckoning can be found in Rabbinic literature. In the
Jewish Talmud (Shabbath 9, 3; cf.) and the Babylonian Talmud (Pesahim 4a) we read about Rabbi
Eleazar ben Azariah, who lived around 100 A.D., making the following statement: "A day and a
night are an Onan ['a portion of time'] and THE PORTION OF AN ONAN IS AS
THE WHOLE OF IT."

Records Bacchiocchi --

There are...instances in Rabbinic literature where the "three days and three nights" of Jo-
nah 1:17 are combined with Old Testament passages which mention events that took
place "in the third day."

"It is in this light," writes Gerhard Dilling in the Theological Dictionary of the New Tes-
tament, "that we are to understand Matthew 12:40" (vol. II, p.950, article "hemera").

The Jewish Encyclopedia underscores the fact that the practice of inclusive day reckoning
is still in vogue among Jewish people today: "In Jewish communal life part of a day is at times
reckoned as one day; e.g., the day of the funeral, even when the latter takes place late in the after-
noon, is counted as the first of the seven days of mourning; a short time in the morning of the sev-
enth day is counted as the seventh day; circumcision takes place on the eighth day, even though on
the first day only a few minutes remained after the birth of the child, these being counted as one
day" (vol. IV, p.475).

With this knowledge we can plainly see that "three days and three nights" -- in Jewish ter-
minology -- did not necessarily imply a full period of three actual days and three actual nights, but

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